I admit it, I feel misled by the cover blurb on A. S. Byatt’s Little Black Book of Stories. It starts off “Like Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, A. s. Byatt knows that fairy tales are for grown-ups. And in this ravishing collection she breathes new life into the form.” So I was anticipating a book of fairy tales, but what it gave me was just what it said in the title: A book of stories. Although there were lavish descriptions and rich details that maybe the writers of the cover blurb interpreted as being magical, very few of the stories contained magic in any way, and I ended up very disappointed.

Mister Monday by Garth Nix, is the first book in the Keys to the Kingdom series. The hero is Arthur Penhaligon, a child with asthma who is given possession of one of the keys to another realm, but those who are hunting him down to get it back have sickened the people of his town and the only way to free them from the illness is to journey to a mysterious world, and take on Mister Monday and the entire bureaucracy that backs him.

The book reminded me in places of The Phantom Tollbooth. There were words that I was surprised to see in such a children’s book, but they were defined within the story and seemed like a good way to help a young reader stretch his or her vocabulary. Throughout the book is an emphasis on the power of words and reading that I found delightful. The action was fast paced, and there were many touches of humor and wonder throughout the book. It was an enjoyable read, though I’m not quite sure if I’m going to pick up the rest of the series to read. There were a couple of characters I liked that played a rather small role in the story after Arthur traveled to the other world. I think if I knew that they were going to play more of a role in the next book, I would be intrigued enough to want to find out what happens next. I’m a very character-driven person, and even if the setting is fantastic and creative, I have to feel engaged with the characters as well. Overall, I would expect that kids would enjoy the book, but I would need a little more intriguing characterization for me to stay hooked into the series as an adult.

A friend of mine shared Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson with me, because of my interest in blending magic and mythology with the modern world. Alif is an amazing example of this, with a setting right in the middle of the modern Arab Spring, and a computer programmer as the main hero on an adventure that connects the Arabian Nights, and the Quran, with modern cyberspace and the political climate of a totalitarian regime in the Middle East, making some interesting points about each of them along the way.

I was initially surprised at the level of adult themes and sexuality present in Alif. I’ve read so many stories of myths and magic that focus around younger readers, that I still haven’t quite adjusted to expecting to find it in this genre, (except with Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, where a friend cheerfully told me, “You have to read this! Its just like Harry Potter but with sex and swearing!”). Alif is definitely a book intended for a more adult audience.

I will admit that I have not read all of the tales from “A Thousand and One Nights” or all of the Quran, or feel like I truly know the Middle East region outside of my history classes in high school and listening to a lot of NPR. I can’t tell you how much of Alif was based in authentic details and knowledge of the setting, or what key points were twisted for the sake of story, but I can tell you that I feel like I get a good window into the world created in the book: I feel like I am missing a bit of the cultural knowledge to fully understand and appreciate the significance of the rigid social statures and the effects those have on the characters, their “allowed relationships”, what behaviors and what religious beliefs are considered normal and acceptable for their particular cultural heritage and economic standing.

The author does do well at explaining these things to the extent that they affect plot and the character’s decision making, but also at leaving room for continued curiousity. Sometimes it is like peering into a window and being able to see and hear what is directly spoken, and knowing some things are referenced from past events, but the characters don’t take the time to go through and explain every detail in ways that would end up feeling stilted, unnatural, and end up bogging down the pace of the story. Alif gives what information is necessary for you to understand the character’s actions & motivation, and gives you enough detail about the world to make it clear that you are still only getting a tantalizing glimpse of the world; A single complete story from an epic saga spanning generations. There are other characters I can point out and say “I could probably read another book that focuses in on that person’s story.”

I’ve heard it told from the authors that focus on world-building, that 90% of the background information and character information will never come out into the story: The authors know it so that they can present only the rich details that are relevant to a particular storyline, but they also have to know everything else about their character in order for his/her actions to be realistic for that person, in that moment in that scene. I feel that Alif struck a very good balance between that which was revealed, hinted at, and kept hidden. This is particularly important for a book that traverses settings where privacy, identity and secrecy are very important: The protocols of hidden identities in a community of hackers within a totalitarian provides an interesting mirror to the way the djinn appear to mortals differently. These themes of identity of how much we choose to share, and how much others choose to see are even mirrored in the decision that Dina makes to wear a veil and honor the traditional methods of dress and protocols of interacting with other genders, despite peers in her social class looking down on her for that decision.

Coming from the Western world, where burkas have frequently been used as a symbol of the oppression of women in Muslim countries, and where the use of the burka has been very controversial in some productions of The Vagina Monologues. Although there is usually a preface given to this sketch from the Vagina Monologues indicating that a person’s choice to wear a burka is an individual choice involving a person’s cultural and religious beliefs and should be respected, and that this particular monologue applied only to the countries and cultures where women were not given a choice about what they wore. Much of the presentations (positive and negative) about the burka have been laced with this kind of anger. It was refreshing to see the way that G. Wilson handled Dina’s choice to veil her face and the consequences of that her decision throughout the book.

I will also say, as someone who has written computer code myself, I was delighted to find the descriptions in the book where computer coding was expressed in a manner that feels just as epic as it does to me when I am working on a major project.

Maybe its just due to the recent passing of Roger Ebert, but I am feeling the need to finish off this review by giving Alif the Unseen a thumbs-up.

A friend of mine was playing Scribblenauts Unlimited, and decided he would try to solve all the problems in the games by summoning beavers. Although there were a few puzzles that required non-beaver solutions, he was able to a surprising number of quests in the game completed simply by summoning a beaver, and adding a few adjectives appropriate to the task. The Logger who wanted something to help him chop wood was rather simple: He gave the logger a beaver, and the logger started cutting down the trees. A priest wanted something to chase the demon away, so he gave the priest a “holy beaver,” a hungry dinosaur was given a “tasty beaver” and the fireman put out his fire with a “water beaver”. My friend just summed a translucent beaver made of water, and the day was saved… Some of the puzzles required some vocabulary skills and some trial-and-error to solve this way. One quest to exterminate a bee infestation was solved by him summoning an “insectivorous beaver.”

There were a few quests that were immune to his beaver summoning magic, however. A grandmother wanted her house painted, and many different attempts to solve this with beavers simply failed. Still, I have learned more respect for the mystical art of beavermancy. I remember back in the day when I scoffed at the idea of a wizard who’s dark arts allowed him to summon boxes in the game Trine. In the very beginning of the game, this wizard was told that his skills were needed in the quest to save the world. Turns out that in the right circumstances, the ability to summon boxes is very handy, even when it isn’t moving day.

On a lark, I decided to search the internet to see if there were others who practiced the art of beavermancy. It turns out, up until this posting, the only place that even mentions “beavermancer” on the internet is aaroncity’s page documenting a trip to Canada. Searching for “Beavermancy” just gets some websites with white pages listings for someone with the name “Beaver, Mancy.” It seems that art of Beavermancy remains one of a magician’s most supremely guarded secrets.